But they were cheap knockoffs masquerading as the real thing -- the latest counterfeits in a Denver man's six-year scheme to profit off unsuspecting Internet shoppers, according to court papers and federal prosecutors.

Walid Turk, 40, admitted in federal court today in Albany that he was getting them from manufacturers in China and selling them on the Internet as if they were the authentic items.

Turk pleaded guilty to conspiring to traffic in counterfeit goods from 2003 to 2008. He faces up to five years in prison when U.S. District Judge Lawrence Kahn sentences him in August.

Turk and his wife, Yasmeen Turk, were first charged in connection with the items seized in Champlain in 2008, when they were living in Denver. The charges were dismissed in Colorado, but the Turks were indicted again by a federal grand jury in Syracuse soon afterward.

By then, the Turks had fled to Amman, Jordan, Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward Broton said. Walid Turk's lawyer recently notified Broton that Turk had agreed to turn himself in and plead guilty. The charges against Yasmeen Turk will be dropped as part of her husband's plea agreement, Broton said.

The Turks' bank records, subpoenaed by federal investigators, showed they'd deposited $7 million into their accounts from 2004 to 2008, Broton said. But there's no way of knowing how much of that was from the illegal sales of the counterfeit items, he said.

Walid Turk is a U.S. citizen who holds a passport from Lebanon. His wife is a Canadian citizen who was living legally in the U.S. at the time of her arrest, court papers said.

Along with the charge of dealing in counterfeit goods, the Turks were accused of using stolen or fake credit card numbers to pay for the shipping of all the exercise equipment.

Federal Express officials claimed the Turks and their accomplices defrauded the company out of $5.5 million through the use of stolen or unauthorized credit card use, according to an affidavit from Secret Service Agent Timothy Kirk, who's in charge of the Syracuse office.

The Turks dispute that amount. The credit card fraud charge will be dismissed after Walid Turk is sentenced, Broton said.

Representatives from the makers of the real products inspected the seized items and confirmed they were counterfeit and of substandard quality, Broton said.

An investigation into the Turks began in April 2008, after agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement seized $2.1 million in counterfeit merchandise in Oak Harbor, Wash., according to Kirk's affidavit.

Those counterfeit items, which included exercise equipment, had been purchased by Bryan Polee from a manufacturer in China, Kirk wrote. Polee told the agents he'd been working with a man he knew only as Wally who owned a business called Planet Mobile, Kirk's affidavit said.

Federal agents determined that Wally was Walid Turk and that Planet Mobile was the company he was using to receive 2 to 5 shipments a month from the manufacturer in China, the affidavit said.

Polee pleaded guilty in federal court in the state of Washington and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.